Evolve and Thrive

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change. ~Stephen Hawking
Embracing change is a key to business and personal growth. With change comes opportunity for distinction and value, new markets and new life. Without change we stagnate.

We all know that change is a given. It's pretty obvious. Five years ago no one had heard of a Wii. Phones were still separate from MP3 players. The idea of selling over the web was a joke only a decade ago - no more.

We do change in our businesses. We re-position our brands, enhance our products, modernize our facilities, invest in systems and staff to enhance our efficiencies. We update our offices, revamp our websites and evolve in so many ways to stay hip with our markets.

Yet we don't change in the most important way. We hold on to our status quo thinking and beliefs, about our markets and our business. We relive our corporate legends while we lose touch with our ever-changing market reality. The way we've always done it becomes the way we always do it.

We get stuck in our own status quo.

Being a risk taker, it eludes me why hanging onto a self-limiting belief is safer than embracing change - even if change means taking a step into the unknown.

Without change there is no progress. Changing our external image or products or packaging doesn't overcome our status quo.

Only by consciously adapting our beliefs and behaviors can we shed our past and face the future. Change doesn't have to be scary - it's the most natural thing of all.